here, "chicago sun-times" washington bureau chief lynn sweet and buzz feed's mckay coffins fresh from the trail. house speaker john boehner is doing the dance of the seven veils. ♪ >> a day after the president's re-election, the speaker of the house opened the door to additional tax revenues. >> we're willing to accept new revenue under the right conditions. >> but after that telling peekaboo, boehner pulled back, announcing tax increases are not an option. >> raising tax rates is unacceptable. >> raising tax rates will slow down our ability to create the jobs that everyone says they want. >> last night, he revealed to diane sawyer that his party was no longer seeking to repeal the affordable care act. >> well, i think the election changes that. it's pretty clear that the

president was elected, obama care is the law of the land. >> but you won't be spending the time next year trying to repeal obama care. >> there may be parts of it that we believe need to be changed. we may do that. no decisions at this point. >> but hours after that interview, boehner shrouded himself once again tweeting, obama care is law of the land but it is raising costs and threatening jobs. our goal has been and will remain #full repeal. despite the seductive dance over tax and health care policy it is the president who actually holds the cap positive audience. in one hour obama is expected to give his first policy address since re-election. this time around, it looks like president obama will have the upper hand. in the cover story for bloomberg business week josh green writes president obama is holding the cards, quote, in obama's second term, leverage will shift to the

democrats on almost every issue of importance. that includes economic policy, tax policy, immigration, and health care. even the speaker seems to realize this. >> mr. president, this is your moment. we're ready to be led. not as democrats or republicans, but as americans. >> so while john boehner may try to keep entertaining both sides with his elaborate dance, sooner or later the music is going to stop. josh green is senior national correspondent for bloomberg business week and joins us now from washington, d.c. josh, it is great to see you. >> good to be with you. >> let's talk about this what i like to term dance of the seven veils that the speaker of the house is performing for us right now or a fan dance, depending on your favorite form of entertainment. at a certain point -- this is evidence of how he has to play cate a house caucus and i think betrays of broader understanding that the republican party needs to come to the table and deal. you seem to think at the end of the day, the real deal is going

to be one that the president determines. >> yeah. i think boehner has an extraordinarily difficult thing to do and that is to lead his party and especially the house republican caucus, out of this land of make believe that they've been living in for the last couple years, where obama's a terrible president, romney's going to win in a landslide and they're going to impose the republican agenda. what i write in the cover story if you look at how things have changed on the outside looks like the status quo, same president, same senate, same house but all the leverage has shifted to obama because what the democrats really want and need is revenue and now they don't need republicans to get revenue. they can just let the bush tax cuts expire, go over the fiscal cliff and have all the revenue they need whether or not john boehner and his caucus want to participate. >> jeff, i always say that i think the speaker has one of the hardest jobs in washington and i think it's -- that's in evidence now more than ever. i think the question is, if he

does end of striking a grand bargain with the white house, does he hold on to his speakership. >> that's a great question. he has a very, very difficult job and the truth is, both he and the president need each other. both men need compromise. both men men want the fiscal cliff not to happen because they want a recession not to happen next year. the truth is, as that article says, the president does have a lot of cards. he campaigned every day on the idea of not letting those tax increases go. so he absolutely will stay very firm about that because he feels he has a mandate. >> lynn, as someone that covers the white house, i wonder, we're going to see the president speak in a few minutes later on this hour, he is newly energized because of the election but if he looks at the makeup of the senate, it was a complete -- it's a bonus round if any, if there ever was one, there is i think a new sense of power among the democratic caucus in terms

of what they can do, independent of even the reality of the fiscal cliff and the fact they can basically let the country go off and bring the republicans weakened back to the dealmaking table. >> that's a possibility. here's a few reasons why the white house is in good shape even though it's still -- you still have to get the house on board to get something done. the obama army is still out there that can be activated. lots of people energized by the wind. need something to do if they want to stay involved, not clear yet, how the apparatus formally will stay together in the long term but it's there in the short term. the other thing that obama has to worry -- not worry about, but deal with when you talk about maybe letting the tax breaks expire, he owes a lot to the progressive wing of the party. the party democrats who have been mad at him all these years over -- you go in with the compromised position, no wonder you get walked all over by the house republicans. so they're going to say --

>> give them nothing. >> give them nothing, take it to the brink, we all know in the end, that members of congress know how to compromise, but if he's going to get any thank you to all the constituencies from many of the left to center f he starts out now, he will have to worry about getting his own majority right off the bat and i think he -- >> you're saying he owes it to the progressive base to push this thing to the limit and maybe take -- >> absolutely. . deadlines congress make they can remake. it takes a vote to move back the deadline. they can do that if they need more time. >> mckay. >> i think the problem with that is that while democrats feel they have a mandate and most evidence points to the fact they do, republicans haven't gotten there yet. we see john boehner walking this tightrope, to use another analogy. >> it all involves physical activities and high stakes, don't know the dance of the seven veils is high stakes. >> i keep hearing from gop

operatives and strategists in the party, yes obama won, it was a broad win, but wasn't a deep win. it was close. that's something -- and then you filter down to the actual voters. i spent the last few months on the romney trail talking to partis partisan republican voters and it's going to take a long time for this, you know, recognition that the republican party needs to compromise, to filter down to these partisan republican voters. >> if it even does. >> right. >> there's no appetite for compromise on the ground in ohio, for example, among partisan republicans. >> we're talking about a fiscal cliff, that is the metaphor we decided applied here. bob rice tweeted today, i think he's right, it's a hill. >> it's a curve. >> a slope. >> yeah. the thing about, you know, yes, taxes would go up immediately, yes spending would go down immediately, but that's day by day over years. what is a cliff course is the debt ceiling debate which is going to come up again and what's -- what makes this, among other things, such a fantastic

chess game for the president and congress, is that if they allow the fiscal cliff to happen, the taxes to go up and the spending to go down, suddenly treasury is full of money to postpone the debt ceiling problem. so, he's got all kinds of crafty weapons. >> however, there is a however there. and that is, the markets -- >> right. >> the markets would hate it. >> yes. >> absolutely. and if the market is a big slide, that's a problem. >> he's not up for re-election anymore. >> there's a good point of comparison here for how the market might react and how democrats think this is going to play out if we go over the cliff. flash back to the last extension of the payroll tax cut where obama essentially drew a line in the sand, said we're going to extend this payroll tax cut, house republicans blocked him. and if you remember the public furor, they collapsed in about a week. >> that was a cut. >> that pressure would be much more intense because everybody's tax rates would be going up this time.

the debt ceiling isn't going to hit until some time in february or as curt said, maybe later if the government starts getting in more revenue. the idea that republicans will be able to hold out for two months i find kind of hard to believe. i think this gets resolved pretty early on in january, if it even takes that long. >> i want to talk about the affordable care act too. this was the thing, the thing, that romney was going to do, repeal obama care, and now it is, as the speaker says, law of the land. the other thing that we've all known is, once this thing starts, once it is a practical reality in americans' lives, i brought the public support will be through the rife, right? the question facing republicans now is, are you going to throw away the number one legislative priority that you guys sort of -- the drum you have been beating for two years, bus you lost? >> i think the way we've seen boehner handle this right now is, you know, he tweeted, our number one priority with obama care is -- remains #full repeal,

but he doesn't say when, right. i think that the -- >> 2070. >> the game might be for a while to postpone it and, you know, tell the base and the conservative caucus we're going to get there, but we first have to deal with all these other things. >> boehner's -- >> here's where they'll have skirmishes. knowing that obama's re-elected all the regulators are obama appointees for writing the rule to implement the law that fully kicks in 2014. when -- and i think what boehner had to do was a little -- big walk back between the tweet and the interview. >> i think saying that the law of the land and then saying #fullrepeal is -- >> i mean -- >> like the palestinians saying we're still -- we still hate the fact that we don't have israel and some day we'll rurnl eturn jerusalem but this is the deal. >> expect the president and the white house to talk about the great things about the affordable act. >> of course. >> we'll move into it in some point in the next months and years into a legacy question and

the president is going to want to be sure, look, we made this happen, maybe didn't selit well the first time but now you it is the law of the law. >> the other thing boehner said in the interview with diane sawyer the other night that really struck me was, there's no tea party caucus to speak of. yes, there is. a quarter of your caucus are members of the official tea party caucus. >> yeah. >> but it's interesting to me that he's sort of saying, it's not -- >> called stockholm syndrome, the fact that your captors you can no longer recognize them as your captors. >> josh, before we go, in terms of implementing the affordable care act it's a question among state governor scott walker in wisconsin bet big on mitt romney, like we're not going to need to plan for the implementation of the affordable care act because it's not going to happen and look, it's going to happen and there are deadlines for setting up the exchanges and if the states don't do them the federal government will do them. >> that's right. i think all the republican governors were looking to a president romney as a kind of a

escape patch to let them off the hook. now that's not going to happen. the law will go into effect and the decision they have to make, are they going to pass up hundreds of billions of dollars in federal money for medicaid or are they going to create their own, you know, exchanges and i think what you're going to see is quietly a lot of these governors folding, accepting reality, taking the money and moving on. >> the acceptance of reality is hard sometimes but it must be done. after the break, the wall street titans who went all-in on the romney ticket, may not be thinking the same thing. oops. but can bankers repair their tattered ties with the president? we will discuss that next on "now."

wall street bankers may want to rethink their strategy for selecting presidents. their huge bet on governor mitt romney turned into a colossal mistake according to the center for responsive politics the securities and investments industry donated nearly $20 million to team romney. the biggest contributions from employees of goldman sachs, bank of america, morgan stanley, jpmorgan chase and credit suisse. the president got less than $6 million from wall street. where did his top contributions come from? employees of the university of california. wells fargo, the only bank on the list of top 20 contributors came in at number 19. compare that to 2008, when wall street overwhelmingly supported the president, with employees of goldman sachs contributing more than $1 million to team obama. but new financial regulations and the president's frank talk

about the excesses of wall street bruised some egos along the way. >> i would call myself a barely democrat at this point. i've gotten disturbed at some of the democrats' anti-business behavior, the sentiment, the attacks on work ethic and successful people and i think it's very counter productive. >> go back to the attacks on work ethic. wall street finds itself in an awkward position, according to the "times", quote, starting over with the obama white house will not be easy. one senior wall street lawyer who spoke on the condition of anonymity said wall street made a bad mistake in pushing so hard for mr. romney. they are going to pay a price, he said, it will sofltsen over time but there will be a price. jeff, as a white house denison, both of you, surrounded by white house den nasons, how hard will it be to repair this relationship? how much ranker does the white house hold in its heart for the titans of wall street? >> the president also needs wall street and there may be bad

feeling there, but there were a lot of white house officials who after obama's first remarks about fat cats, came back really quickly to try to walk that back too. the president wants this economy to get better and needs people in wall street, small businesses, business people around the country to be on his side. i think we will not expect to see really sharp rhetoric like that again. >> i don't know what we will see. i don't know that he needs them that much. yes, he needs -- for all this to work out as well as it can, he needs the business people of america to think he's not anti-business, but wall street in particular, i don't think he needs them. >> i respectfully disagree. i mean, actually the only thing he doesn't need them for anymore is to woo for their campaign cash. there's this big saying in politics no permanent friends no permanent enemies. today maybe it's not obvious but when you have years ahead of you with stuff we don't know what's coming down the line it makes no

sense not to have outreach. i don't know if this department, what was he going to appoint -- >> department of business. >> would need congressional approval would ever get off the ground if nothing else, you know, would -- it would just be a distraction right now, with everything he would have to do. i don't write it off. it doesn't make sense. >> josh, listening to that jamie dimon quote, the notion somehow the president was impugning work ethic and an enemy of business, will that name finally get laid to rest? can they let it go, as far as i know it was the fat cat comment, the fat cat comment, maybe dodd/frank, which is -- they've been trying to unwind in congress, but really this president hasn't been anti-business and wall street is doing pretty well. will that sword be buried in the ground? >> i don't know if it will be buried in the ground. the main drivers were the hysterical partisan billionaires like sheldon adelson and the koch brothers all whipped up in a furry because of the election.

now that's passed and lynn made a point, the obama white house can use these business leaders including wall street leaders who more than any other contingent of the republican party, wants a big grand barg n bargain. a lot support bowles-simpson and can be an ally to the white house and the white house would like them to be allies in this big fight coming ahead. obama is enough of a pragmatist that i think he recognizes that and he's not going to punish the jamie dimons of the world or anything like that. he wants to enlist them. >> i wonder in terms of dodd/frank, elizabeth warren is going to be in the u.s. senate and i'll read an excerpt from "new york" magazine. obama will probably not morph into a fierce anti-bank reformer who will set out to make wall street life's miserable. that duty will fall to senator elect elizabeth warren. when it comes to treating bank executives as wise statesmen whose council is sought on economic issues a second term obama will feel freer to tune those voices out. the retirement of tim geithner

as treasury secretary and who he chooses next. tim geithner a creature of wall street. some names floated according to you, jack lou and ears kin bowles. i question whether he would do that because it would be such an affirmation of bowles-simpson which he turned his back on in the first time. >> bowles-simpson may well be the framework of the deal we get to get off the cliff anding? senator dick durbin has put out there as where we should go back to. once you get past the election, we've seen it before. something that didn't look so good a few months ago, is going to look a little better in the next few weeks. obama may take another look. you know, you change it here and there and say now that we've made these changes in bowles-simpson, now it's there. >> he was walking it back already. >> bowles and simpson are taking their act on the rooed to try to whip up popular support. >> the treasury secretary, one

thing the president likes about tim geithner he had a good personal relationship, geithner could come over to the white house and chat about what was going on with the economy. the president has a good relationship with jack. he is there tight. he's been very pleased with how he's done as the chief of staff and i think it's right he's a front runner for the job. >> josh, in terms of the agenda that president can push forward independent of dodd/frank the question of tax reform and what happens to carried interest and capital gains, those deeply affect folks on wall street, do you think they're sort of prepared to take the pain as far as reform on those two issues? >> absolutely. i don't think there's pain in getting rid of the carried interest loophole. the other reason why jack is likely treasury secretary is he's a former head of omb and knows the budget inside and out and that's going to be washington's focus i think over the next year. so i think they're going to turn toward basically figuring out, you know, how do we broaden the

base, close loopholes, bring tax rates down and anyone, you know, it could be an erskine bowles, would be well suited for that job. >> many questions remain as far as that oval office. we didn't talk chief of staff, a whole other mystery. a whole other dance of seven different veils. thank you to josh green, bloomberg's issue, the next four years is out now. coming up, there's been plenty of arm chair quarterbacking from the right since governor romney's defeat on tuesday night, but while there are course correction suggestions a plenty it remains to be seen who will lead the gop out of the moreras. we'll look at the bench just ahead.

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there is an impressive bumper crop of women on their way to capitol hill and headliner, elizabeth warren indicates they'll take up legislation that benefits their gender. >> to all the women across massachusetts that are working your tails off, you better believe we're going to fight for equal pay for equal work. >> we will take a look at some of warren's soon-to-be senate colleagues and whether women can get washington working again. that's next on "now." music is a universal language. but when i was in an accident... i was worried the health care system spoke a language all its own with unitedhealthcare, i got help that fit my life. information on my phone. connection to doctors who get where i'm from. and tools to estimate what my care may cost. so i never missed a beat.

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come 2013 every member of the new hampshire congressional delegation will be female, as will the stays's governor, but an op-ed in the new york times asks, does this mean the next congress will be more attentive to the needs of children, single mothers and americans who are vulnerable because of low-income, poor health and our disadvantages? sadly no. our research shows that female lawmakers significantly reshape policies only wedge they have true parody with men. while tuesday's electoral gains should be celebrated, they've got a very long way to go. that i think qualifies as an official buzz kill of a new york times story. lynn, i myself am very optimistic about the fact that one-fifth of the senate will be female and i think our sex has an ability to forge compromise that sometimes eludes gentlemen, no offense intended. what do you think increased female membership does to the washington dynamic? >> it may make a conversation, but as we celebrate more women being there, let's remember, 20% of senate, 50% of the population

are women, and, you know, i think in terms of getting more women in elected office, we need -- you can't just say it's great, it's done, this still is half the loaf. a lot more to go in getting women in there. i think that the women can do more probably in forging alliances within the inner house caucuses. i know it sounds funny, you don't have a men's caucus, because that's really what congress is, but they do have -- women have -- >> women can come together and they have these off the record lunches between democrats and republicans. >> stuff going on behind the scenes, where they may find xron ground and they mays just realize that it is -- helps them all to figure out ways where they can make names for themselves to do something major. the point is, to have real power in the congress, you got to be a committee chair, you have to be a big fund-raiser, and they need to take on these roles.

>> talk about that. we have elizabeth warren who is now soon to be a member of the senate and carries with her a lot of baggage and expectations and margaret carlson and bloomberg view writes -- >> she certainly in terms of her public persona so far does not fit your gender stereotype of compromise, soft. she's clearly an uncompromising person her in statements. i hope that she doesn't start taking her headlines seriously about running for president, and i hope that she sees her chance to be this incredibly intellectually powerful u.s. senator on her set of issues and

really goes for it. >> even in the break you were talking about how she could -- in the way ted kennedy was almost the moral compass for the left she could do that in the senate and, therefore, shift sort of the goal posts in many ways. >> that's her seat. >> at the same time that will make her a boogie man to the right, 100%. already, and that's probably good for her in a lot of ways, she could be a ted kennedy type figure in the senate where democrats rally around her and the progressive movement gets behind her but conservatives will raise a lot of money off her, use her in commercials. republicans will see her as one of their top enemies. >> she has a very strong ally in the white house. we talked earlier about the fact that the president talked every day about tax cuts and also talked every day about women's issues. if she and others in congress want to put women's interests at the fored. >> i think issues, the

environment seems to be one of them. talk about the one from hawaii. . this solid liberal voting recorder, supporter of renewable energy. tammy bald wynn voted for cap and trade. heidi hide camp. i mean we might see a bipartisan bill forged to deal with energy led by women. >> if it comes to climate change i think the woman who might have the most to do with a wake-up call is named sandy on this one. so -- >> sandy really was a male or a female male. >> i thought it was female. you think not? >> it's up to -- >> i thought -- >> but let's go -- >> in terms of sparking that bloomberg endorsement of the president and giving climate change in to the mix of it, very end of the campaign, it does race a question of whether -- >> shout out to president victory's speech. that issue is back. >> dramatic way because of the hurricane.

i think what the women have especially tammy baldwin froms the house, they have a running start, elizabeth warren knows washington, how it works, and the republicans they just didn't confirm her to be head of the consumer financial protection board and let her sit there and simplify every form in america and train us all in literacy -- >> not that that's a bad thing. >> attack bad credit practices. >> so many examples, that being one of them of the unintended consequences of overreach. mourdock in indiana, elizabeth warren could have been taken out of the game. >> todd aakin. >> but no. the right wing which is now redundant, the republican party, decided let's push it even further and this is -- they've come. >> these are the seeds that have been sewn. this is really interesting, worth noting to break, the center for american women and politics at rutgers did a study, the reason women run for

office, 46% of women run because they want to deal with public policy. only 36% of men run for office because they actually want to deal with policy. dare i say it, power issues. >> you know, ambition and one other thing with men i'll say it quickly if we have to go, a lot of times men have achieveded what they think is their big business or professional success, they have a few options, do i buy a big car, a sports team. >> or do i run for office. >> run for office. >> those are the questions i actually turn around in my head but i'm not really a woman running for senate. >> a fine line between strong conviction and irrational denial and some republicans are straddling that line right now. case in point, karl rove. who can snap the gop out of its post-election funk. some suggestions just ahead. follow the wings.

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in just a matter of minutes, president obama is set to make his first post-re-election statement. here is a live look at the white house where the president will speak momentarily. we will preview his remarks and bring them to you live just ahead.

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president obama has been re-elected with the -- becoming the first president in history to win a second term with a smaller percentage of the vote than he did in his first time. >> he won, karl. that's what the republicans -- >> he won. >> care about, the democrats care about. >> the first step is admitting you have a problem. the question for the gop now is, what to do about it and who can

solve it. >> there is no shortage of advice. start with essential even existential questions, why does the party exist? what is its purpose, suggests beggy noonan. spend less on marketing and more on product development, less on super pacs and more on research says david brooks. do conservatism but do it better, charles krauthammer. the party could start listening to its youth. buzz feed reports many young gop operatives, skeptical of tv advertising and any mail over e-mail felt disappointment but a relief following romney's loss. the blood letting could begin, quote, the time had finally come to push aside the television centric operatives who have run republican campaigns for a generation, to reset the parties values around race and sex and adapt its tactics to the era of twitter. some party leaders may be taking notice. "the washington post" reports top republican officials have begun an exhaustive data driven two-month review to figure out

what went so wrong and how to fix it. mckay, you were there. you were in romney hq that night. are you confident that the party, the phoenix may rise from the ashes? >> they know that it -- the ashes in general? they know it has to happen. i was there, that was my colleague who wrote that. we were both there. these were kind of mid-level campaign aides talking about the future, what was going to happen to the party, and they talked about marco rubio, they talked about the need to win over youth voters to probably de-emphasize social issues, not talk about same-sex marriage as much as they have. >> that's the problem there. right? it's not de-emphasize. i don't think it's about de-emphasizing. it's about crafting a different position. >> so here's the problem. this is wait they see this, though. honestly, most of these mid-level aides even on the romney campaign, they're not against gay marriage. they're not. t they don't care about it as a an

issue. they also realize in the near to mid term, the next four to eight years, even as gay marriage becomes the law of the land across the country, you know, you still have a social conservative base, a religious base of the republican party, that you can't just cast off. the republican party will never win another national election if you tell 20 million, 30 million evangelicals sorry we don't care about your policies or agenda at all. >> they have to square some circles then. look at exit polling among gay, lesbian and bye sexual voters, barack obama won 70%, compared to mitt romney with 22%. >> surprised it was that low, actually. >> surprised there was anybody that voted for mitt romney. >> that's the point. >> that's an issue where there's going to have to be some substantive change and soon. >> what was interesting about the day after in the two-day after commentaries by every person on the right i read they all immediately including the "wall street journal," rupert murdoch were saying we've got to

be less nativists, we've got to -- we can't lose the hispanics for generations after generation. and some of them act as though that's simple to do. again as with how do you write off evangelicals who care about abortion among all else, how do you write off after four, six, eight years of beating the drum against amnesty, that part of your base -- >> i think there are some paths forward. first of all a recognition that politically dem grapography is desti destiny. if you're republicans, as any party that becomes might norty or losing you have as political forces do, you make coalitions. it may be they have situational growth where the social conservatives can find an alliance with left/right. we see strange bedfellows all the time. maybe it's not big. it's going to be a long path but it means that the republican party can find issues where they

can take a stand and say we mean something. >> what's interesting -- >> it's important to note that the white house and democrats know this is a weakness for republicans and they also know that the republicans have to move on it. >> and quickly. >> right. >> before 2016. >> and the president made a big point of talking about immigration reform during this campaign, he's made it clear it's one of the issues he wants to do in a second term. he's going to exploit that with the republicans and hope they do want to compromise because that would give him a victory too. >> if he doesn't do it soon, one, it will make his base go crazy but he cannot get caught up in the 2014 elections. i would say this is a time if obama is going to do it, criticized for not in the first term. >> what happens after immigration? this is the thing that marco rubio talks about, immigration used as a wedge issue by both sides but once -- if there is actual resolve brought to that issue, right, if we figure out what to do with the 13 million illegal immigrants here, how do republicans win over latinos after that, right?

they're not just -- they don't only care about immigration, latino voters, and you know, so there's a question about what are actual demography is destiny in politics, what are the other issues that latino voters -- >> let's talk about the shepard for this immigration reform that's going to be marco rubio, right? politicalco, can rubio save gop on immigration. this is his moment and how the 41-year-old senate and the most prominent in national politics define not only his future but the future of the republican party. >> the center of republican philosophy embodied by george bush's attempt to do it and john mccain was, reasonableness on immigration. >> and john mccain and ted kennedy came close to having an immigration deal. >> the republicans need to do a major across-the-board etch a sketch on their -- >> on the immigration issue that's one issue where many on

the religious right would come on board because churches, evangelical churches, catholic churches, want to resolve this issue for their own reasons. >> to curt's point it needs to be a wholesale rethinking of the party, not just on the imin i gration piece, but people of color have been talked about and treated and legislated against. the women's issue,s, not just choice but reproductive health, contraception and gay marriage, and that is going to be hard with a socially conservative base that is no the a big fan of a women's right to choose or gay marriage. >> analogous of what the democrat hassed to do after a decade or two after losin losing 'lxxxlosing '84 and '88 to have a more center party and bill clinton. you have to get beaten more than once or twice to really -- >> if you're marco rubio aren't you pleased you didn't end up on the short list of mitt romney? >> you are so thankful you have

nothing to do with mitt romney. we should talk a little bit about the president because he's going to be speaking in just a few moments and i want to bring in our own mike viqueira. president obama's first post-election statement is happening in a few minutes, using today's address to discuss what everyone has been talking about since the race ended which, of course, the looming fiscal cliff. or the fiscal curve depending on how you want to characterize it. let's go to the white house where mike viqueira is standing by. are we going to see some confetti guns or all business? >> i think you're going to see a lot of conciliatory talk and a lot of owe va tours towards compromise and bipartisan over the course of the rest of this month anyway. alex, if past is precedent, i don't see any reason that's indicating we're going to see the annual end of the year christmas eve brinksmanship, partisanship posturing negotiations. it could be essentially what is a half a trillion dollar tax

increase, at least for the short term, unit it ill they come back in january to work it out. that might be what it takes to get all the votes in line. there's high stakes here and it all boils down to one thing, and it's a relatively small thing in the larger scheme of things when talking about the tax increases together with the sequestration and its potential impact on the economy, it is will the president stick to raising taxes, extending the lower -- the bush tax cuts for everybody but those making those couples making more than $250,000 a year and individuals making $200,000 a year. there is no way that it's going to pass the house of representatives. that's currently constituted right now. john boehner is making very -- talking about expanding the tax -- expanding tax revenue, not talking about raising taxes. doesn't have the votes to do it. in order to come near it, some are talking about let's raise the threshold, nancy pelosi floated $1 million figure last year. the trouble with that is you lose a lot of revenues. the president ran and won in a large part on this pledge to raise taxes at that thresh hold

and i don't think democrats are going to get away with it if, in fact, there's any indication or if there's any inicalclination white house would do that. i don't think they would. there's also wiggle room, some people say wiggle room in the tax rate for the wealthiest would go up to 39.5%. maybe they could lower that somewhat, raise that 250 threshold. again, i think the president's holding all the cards here. not only talking about the income and payroll taxes, dividend taxes, payroll taxes, the alternative minimum taxes and the sequester. >> taxes galore. the ap reporting the president has invited congressional leadership to the white house to discuss but you seem to think this is going to be one of those late night stockings held by the chimney with care situations. >> i think the photo op that we'll see next week, the leaders all here, i think again we're going to see everybody making nice and demonstrating they are the ones to reach out to the other side and try to come to a compromise on this.

i think the difference between now and two years ago when we went through a similar exercise, and where not incidentally the president caved on extending the tax rate for the upper income americans is now the president holds a lot more cards now. he's expanded his majorities in the senate. he ran on this. the house republicans will be somewhat isolated. we haven't talked about the business community ta says, hey, cut the nonsense. you know, if you got to raise some individual tax rates go ahead and do it but this is going to hurt us, not to mention senate republicans more likely to cut a deal. >> mike viqueira, we'll see flexing in the east room today. >> yeah. >> thank you as always my friend for the updates and thank you to my panel here in new york. thank you to curt, jeff, lynn and mckay for wisdom and final thoughts on a friday. that's all for now. see you back here on tuesday after i return from a brief sojurn to the plat net sat turn. ari melbourn in for me, joined by wes moore, "the new york times" nick confa sorry, and the

amitble david wood. find us at facebook.com/now with alex. "andrea mitchell reports" is next with the president's live statement from the east room. [ man ] december 7th. go ahead, mark your calendars. it's the last day you can switch your medicare part d plan. we're ready, and we can't wait to switch. what i wanted was simple: the most value for my dollar. so, now that it's time, we're making the move to a plan that really works for us.

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you can't argue with nutrition you can see. great grains. search great grains and see for yourself. for multi grain flakes that are an excellent source of fiber try great grains banana nut crunch and cranberry almond crunch. right now on "andrea mitchell reports" the fiscal cliffhanger. will democrats agree to entitlement cuts, will republicans accept tax increases? >> raising tax rates will slow down our ability to create the jobs that everyone says they want. everything. everything on revenue side and on the spending side has to be looked at. >> wants to compromise. the trick will be if speaker boehner's instincts to preserve the republican party and preserve the nation in a certain sense will prevail over the hard right, he needs some help. >> as the showdown over the nation's economy takes shape, president obama will be speaking minutes from now in